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FOREWORD
Who’d have thought that taking your clothes off could help the environment? The Japanese, apparently! The logic is obvious – wear cooler clothing, use less air conditioning, reduce energy use, help the planet.
This issue of SEPA View is full of stories about lifestyle choices like that. Some are for us all to make as individuals, like the Japanese removing their collars and ties, or like Norah and Bob Wallace who are not only making their home into a sustainability centre but are also running courses to help equip others to live more sustainably.
Other choices are for communities to make. Look for instance at the island of Unst in Shetland, where the award winning Promoting Unst Renewable Energy (PURE) is using a mix of wind power and hydrogen fuel cells to power industrial units and even run a hydrogen fuel car.
Some lifestyle choices have to be made by society as a whole.
Our cover story this month focuses on Scotland’s Ecological Footprint – the level of impacts we as a country have on the environment – and the stark fact is that if every country used up as much resource as Scotland we would need two other planets to sustain us.
Can we do anything about it? Yes! And three Scottish local authorities are already taking positive action. Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire and North Lanarkshire have teamed up with WWF Scotland to work on things like waste minimisation, energy efficiency and public transport to reduce their ecological footprint.
We can all make positive choices, like speaking up for the environment. Seventeen year old Fergus Ferrier, winner of the Perth Speakers Club annual competition for schools has done just that and you can read what he has to say on page 20. The future, I think, is going to be in good hands.
Campbell Gemmell
SEPA Chief Executive
A full contents list for this HTML version is available via the navigation bar to the left. Alternatively, you can download the pdf version here
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